Waleed Shah, a UAE-based photographer, has been the talk of the town again following yet another powerful campaign exuded through his photography. Shah breaks barriers, by adding a sarcastic take on prominent magazine covers and their content; with a rather inspiring underlining message.

The new photo series is called ‘Magazine Covers’, where he incorporates the ‘magazine aesthetic’ that we all know and love, but mixing the content that people might have been thinking about but never actually see on published covers.

‘Magazine Covers’ is a photo campaign that features real people, real context with topics we never really see magazines cover

Shooting in different countries, with a variety of different people, Waleed touched upon social stigmas, especially those revolving ‘traditional beauty ideals’ or what makes a person a ‘big deal.’

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https://www.instagram.com/p/B7Qz-a2pj-l/

What ignited the photo series was Shah’s exhaustion from seeing the same fashion/ beauty magazine covers and repetitive messaging

Waleed also added his own touch to the images, by taking photos of women in the region, representing the underrepresented, sarcastically pointing out the typical magazine cover’s advertisements and agendas in a different light.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B7gQw1RJ8ju/

This is what ideal magazine covers would look like if we didn’t scrap away from the real aesthetic of individuals and their thoughts

https://www.instagram.com/p/B7vtUq6J5ow/

His inspiration behind this incredible work:

“I tried to understand the fascination with being featured in a magazine. I loved the visual art part of it but I couldn’t find the actual content. I realized that I wasn’t the only one when I saw a video (here) where the ads were removed from a 160-page magazine and were left were 40 pieces of content.

But what about the people that were being glorified? Who were they? And what do they have to offer? Through my work, I meet a lot of regular people and a few celebrities from time to time. I try to get to know everyone on a slightly deeper level before we shoot so I can incorporate their personality and story into the image. But there’s always this one segment of the population, the one that you see regularly on our magazine that I couldn’t get any content out of in real life.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/B7yRntKJDT2/

“I try to get to know everyone on a slightly deeper level before we shoot so I can incorporate their personality and story into the image”

–Waleed Shah

https://www.instagram.com/p/B7025LwJzTs/

You may also remember Waleed’s groundbreaking work with his ‘Rock Your Ugly’ campaign

Rock Your Ugly is an ongoing campaign where Waleed explores the link between people’s physical insecurities and the mental/emotional background behind it.

Everyone has a story to tell, and Shah’s campaign for this definitely paved the light for breaking the stigma around ‘mental health’ issues and tackling insecurities in the Middle East.

Check out that campaign here.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B4KjNKtJkVc/

Or watch our exclusive interview with Waleed Shah on ‘Rock Your Ugly’…